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After months of beta, Project Spark is now available for free on Xbox One for all to play and create.

Microsoft and Team Dakota’s fairytale-flavoured game editor, Project Spark, is finally ready for official release – the complete version can be downloaded now on Xbox One or Windows 8 PCs, free of charge, or bought in a box with some additional content and perks.

The game was announced when the Xbox One was at E3 and was one of the more innovative titles that was displayed. Project Spark is a complex yet user-friendly editing tool, which allows you to sculpt out terrain, choose behaviours for characters, fiddle with a world’s lighting or climate, set victory objectives and much more.

The game works on a free to play method where everything is playable and unlockable but to speed along your process you can use real word currency.

Marmalade Technologies Ltd, providers of the free, top-rated cross-platform app development tool, today announced the release of Marmalade 7.4.

The updated SDK includes a wealth of new features to assist developers in deploying their apps to a broad range of platforms, maximizing their potential reach and revenue streams.

Harvey Elliott, CEO, Marmalade Technologies Ltd: “The release of Marmalade 7.4 is yet another milestone met for Marmalade and the fast growing Marmalade Community, which has more than doubled over the past year. By making continuous improvements to our core C++ tool, we give game developers of all shapes and sizes the ability to publish native performance games on the app stores that matter, without expensive reworking and consuming valuable development time.”

Marmalade 7.4 Key Features
· Windows Phone 8.1 platform support
Developers can now extend apps and games to take advantage of WP8.1 features. For example there is now no need to pre-compile shaders
· iOS 8 and Xcode 6 support
Update and submit your Marmalade apps ahead of public release – use the latest Xcode IDE. The release includes fixes which will ensure Marmalade apps continue to work with iOS8.
· In-app purchase support for Roku
Easily monetise Roku apps
· Marmalade Web support for Firefox OS
Bring your Marmalade Web apps to the Firefox OS marketplace
· Facebook Support
Marmalade 7.4 includes updated Facebook SDKs
· Plus more useful fixes and updates that can be explored further here.

Independent Train2Game student studio Derp Studios has been working with Breeze Radio to create Apps that will safeguard the radio station’s future distribution for years to come.

Successful digital radio station Breeze Radio drafted in the young team of Developers to handle creating its Apps. Breeze Radio has been taking steps to make sure it’s global network of listeners can be reached, as technology continues to develop in the ever changing radio broadcast sector.

Derp Studios were tasked with taking Breeze Radio to the next level of distribution before it arrives, creating Apps that will work alongside its digital distribution channels that will work for mobile and reach every corner of the globe. The apps have now been created and the station is ready for the next steps in its successful development, thanks to the team at Derp Studios.

Andy, setup Breeze Radio when he returned from active service previously of the Royal Engineers. He was working with other stations but found that regulations to make the stations more commercially successful were preventing him from delivering the radio he wanted to. He found that radio was no longer beneficial to the listeners and it wasn’t what they wanted to hear, there was too many adverts and not enough music. He wanted to play music people wanted to hear, not what the major labels were forcing people to listen to so they can make millions selling music.

With Andy’s background in the military and living abroad, he knew what the services and x pat communities wanted to hear. Using digital radio he could reach these communities. He planned to give them good radio without the countless adverts and lack of music variety. He wanted to play a selection of music people wanted to hear, not based on marketing demographics but on quality music that everyone would like. He started Breeze radio and found they actually paid more to keep going because they actually played more music than others so had to pay more royalties.

Breeze is now listened to in 128 countries worldwide with 6million listeners tuning in every week. The radio station has ditched the snobby and old fashioned AM/FM broadcasting model and now uses multiple online channels to handle Breeze’s distribution. This is not only cost affective but reaches a global audience, replacing the traditional radio model and overtaking traditional broadcast channels. Digital is also a better platform for receiving accurate data of listeners, rather than the outdated existing audience monitoring techniques.

But there is still one place web based radio is not the dominant broadcast channel; in the car. But that’s where Derp Studios fits in, it has created Android and Windows 8 Apps which mean Breeze can reach every area of the globe. In the near future you’ll be able to use these Apps to tune into Breeze in your car wherever you are in the world, through the 4G network. This will not only help Breeze reach its existing listeners wherever they are, it will also open up the entire world to the delights of Breeze Radio.

As well as building a successful station for all to enjoy Andy has not stopped at that. Breeze Radio now sell digital radios on the site with all profits going to charities across the globe that help with Autism awareness and childhood cancer.

Chris Ledger, Managing Director, Derp Studios: “It’s great to work with Breeze as we agree with their ethos of reaching people with a product that they want. With Breeze’s huge success we’re really pleased they chose us to safeguard them for the future.”

Andy: “It didn’t cost an arm and a leg but the end product is great. The Derp Studios team made a simple solution for a complicated problem. We’re now safely ready to continue to grow our listenership into the future. It’s not about the money for us, we do it for the love of the music and Derp Studios understood that.”

You can find out more about Train2Game, Breeze Radio and Derp Studios at these links

YoYo Games have announced GameMaker: Studio support for Xbox One, enhanced support for current Microsoft platforms including Windows RT, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1, as well as support for future operating system releases.

The GameMaker: Studio export for Xbox One will be available in the fourth quarter of 2014 to members of Microsoft’s licensed Xbox developer programs, including ID@Xbox.

“This is a great day for GameMaker: Studio developers,” said Sandy Duncan, Chief Executive Officer at YoYo Games. “We’re absolutely thrilled to strengthen our partnership with Microsoft and to give our community the ability to publish to Xbox One for the first time. We’re especially excited that this agreement will bring continued and future support for all Microsoft platforms.”

“We’re thrilled that the Xbox developer community now has the ability to use GameMaker,” said Ryan Lowdermilk, Marketing Manager at Microsoft. “With GameMaker already available for Windows Phone and Windows, it gives developers another great way to create games across multiple Microsoft platforms.”

For more information about how to become a licensed Xbox One developer, please visit www.xbox.com/id. An Xbox One developer kit is required to take advantage of the GameMaker: Studio export for Xbox One.

1000 Doors, 6000 downloads. Successfull release of quiz game equals more features for fans

Indie Quiz game from Train2Game student studio reaches thousands of downloads in first few weeks of its release. To celebrate the successful release with fans, the team have added a new feature where players can submit questions to be included in the game

An ingenius and addictive title from a two man studio is taking the games market by storm. 1000 doors: The Quiz, developed by a student studio from Train2Game, has had huge success reaching this massive milestone of downloads and shows no signs of its success dwindling. To celebrate 5,000 downloads, the game got a new feature which allows the player to create and submit their own questions. The game currently consists of 1,016 separate general knowledge questions with more being submitted all the time by users and the developers at DeuXality Games.

In 1000 Doors: The Quiz, play takes place in a room with four doors and a key floating in the middle. Players tap the key and are presented with a question, four potential answers then appear above the doors. The player has to pick the right answer to move into the next room, if they choose the wrong door they lose one of their five lives. The player can swipe the screen to look around the room, they then have fifteen seconds to make a selection and choose their door. If when the player moves through a door it fades to white then they are safe, if it goes to red they lose a life. As the player gets more questions wrong the room starts to degrade, as they pick correct answers the decor improves. When a player loses all their lives they are greeted with a brick wall stating game over and told how many doors they succesfully navigated.

Both the developers of 1000 Doors: The Quiz, are members of distance blended learning service: Train2Game, an educational body which offers bespoke distance learning courses in games development. The gameswas released on June 26, 2014 on WindowsPhone and Android (with a July 18, 2014 iOS release) As of 23/07/14 the game has been download over 6,000 times on three main platforms: WindowsPhone: 2,700 approx, Android: 1,000 approx and iOS: 2,400 approx. The team have further features planned for the future, including: Facebook integration, HighScore Sharing, Hidden/Discoverable items, Trophies, In game hints/ability to purchase hints, Ability to have players own device stored music play in the background, More categories and Language selection.

UK based video games developer, Red Kite Games has launched Firefly Runner, an action packed, free-running child friendly adventure for Windows Phone and Windows 8 with proceeds going to charity.

Released last week on iOS, Android and Kindle, Firefly Runner can now be downloaded from both the Windows Phone Store and the Windows Store for a one off purchase of 79p with a free trial of the game also being available. Red Kite Games will donate 15% of the revenues generated by Firefly Runner jointly to the charities GamesAid and SpecialEffect thus helping both charities in their work for good causes centred around children and young people.

In the game, players can help Switch the courageous firefly, run, fly, shoot and rescue his captured firefly friends on the stunningly beautiful, yet treacherous, Firefly Island. Players can challenge their reflexes by running, flying and firing their deadly slingshot to take out Switch’s insect foes including grumpy hornets, burping slugs and scuttling spiders. Keep Switch alive and you’ll reach gigantic scores; unlock all the achievements and become the ultimate firefly.

The launch of Firefly Runner has been helped by a series of pro-bono collaborations from games companies including AppyNation, ACE, Carbon Digital, Game Republic, Johnny Atom Productions, Pitstop Productions, PressSpace, Sheridans and Universally Speaking all of whom have donated their services free of charge.

Firefly Runner is now available from the App Store, Amazon Marketplace, Google Play, Windows Phone Store and Windows Store.

Marmalade Technologies has announced that a free license is now available for its flagship product, which enables studios to create games for multiple platforms, including iOS Android, Blackberry, Tizen and both Windows Phone and Windows Store using a single codebase.

Developers will also have access to other products, such as Marmalade Quick, Marmalade Web and Marmalade Juice, which helps them convent iOS projects to run natively on Android.

Meanwhile, developers with Marmalade’s Indie, Plus or Pro licences can now develop games for Windows and Mac, Roku and selected Smart TV platforms.

“Following feedback from our developer community, I’m delighted that we are now able to give all developers the world over the ability to experience the full power of the Marmalade SDK for free,” says CEO Harvey Elliott.

“We know from our community that maintaining native performance for apps across different platforms is a top priority, and now all developers can use a free version of the Marmalade SDK, meaning no compromise on performance whatever their platform and freeing them to concentrate on making fantastic apps and games.”

Microsoft has revealed the latest version of its DirectX API at GDC. The new version has been designed to work across across multiple platforms including PC, Xbox One, tablets and smartphones.

It was claimed the API reduces CPU overhead significantly compared to DirectX 11 and was designed from scratch to take full advantage of advanced GPU hardware features on next-gen systems.

DirectX 12 was shown off on stage with a tech demo of Forza 5 running on a PC powered by an Nvidia Geforce Titan Black by Microsoft DirectX development manager Anuj Gosalia.

Nvidia, which worked with Microsoft on developing the API, will support the latest upgrade on all DirectX 11-class GPUs it has shipped in the Fermi, Kepler and Maxwell architectural families.

“DX12’s focus is on enabling a dramatic increase in visual richness through a significant decrease in API-related CPU overhead,” said Nvidia engineer Henry Moreton.

“Historically, drivers and OS software have managed memory, state, and synchronisation on behalf of developers. However, inefficiencies result from the imperfect understanding of an application’s needs. DX12 gives the application the ability to directly manage resources and state, and perform necessary synchronisation. As a result, developers of advanced applications can efficiently control the GPU, taking advantage of their intimate knowledge of the game’s behaviour.”

While initial details have covered the form of the graphics API, Moreton said future Direct3D releases would include new rendering features.

Train2Game Student Studio, Derp Studios, has released a game on Windows 8! Derpman and the Code Monkey conundrum.

The game is an endless runner, similar to Temple Run and Subway Surfers, where you must run, jump, slide and attack the Code Monkeys that are attacking you to get as much score as you can get. It has a good nostalgia trip for those slightly older gamers among us who remember playing the ZX Spectrum as the graphics and soundtrack are made in that style.

The game was created in a single week for an online event known as a Speccy Jam. The rules of the jam were simple, create a game in the style of a ZX spectrum, simple yet different!

The studio has recently been creating a series of comics, in what little spare time they have, known as Derpman which is a parody series of your favourite superheroes. Following on from the comic series it seemed a logical step to create a game on the bumbling green clad hero.

Chris Ledger, CEO of Derp Studios said “The team really enjoyed Speccy Jam, one of the most fun jams we’ve participated in so we’ll definitely be up for the next one! The time limit was a week and we worked virtually. Everyone performed really well! We’re hoping to get our candidate on all the major mobile stores as soon as possible for all to play!”

The game is out now on the Windows 8 mobile store and downloadable for your PC. If you wish to find out more about the studio or read the comics that lead to this game you can visit www.derpstudios.com

The release of Xbox One is nearly upon us but before Xbox One arrives on Nov. 22, you can download the Xbox One SmartGlass app today.

The Xbox One Smartglass App is separate from the Xbox360 app that you may currently own on your smartdevice. You may remember from the Xbox One launch announcement that Microsoft are planning on making this app a lot more integral to your console experience.

Of course you may wonder what the point to getting the app would be before the console is even released. Until the console is released you may want to try these three things to wet your appetite for the next generation console:

Search for the perfect game. Don’t waste any time – search for new Xbox One games so you can jump right in when your console is ready. Xbox One SmartGlass also lets you view information such as game details, achievements and challenges so you’re ready to get going with your favorite games. You can even check out the Game DVR clips already uploaded by the community!

Keep up with friends. Connect with friends and the Xbox Live community even before you finish setting up your console. Use the app to see what your friends have been up to, check out their latest achievements, or read your messages while you’re waiting.

Personalize your dashboard. Pin your favorite games and apps to the Home screen so you jump into your favorite activities right when you finish setting up your console and log into Xbox Live.

Connecting Xbox One SmartGlass to your Xbox One is easy. Just use the same wireless network on your Xbox One SmartGlass-enabled device as your Xbox One and open the app to automatically connect to your console. Once synced, you can use Xbox One SmartGlass to fly through your console set-up by using gestures to navigate and your device’s keyboard to log in to Xbox Live.

Additionally, Microsoft have partnered with developers to deliver some amazing experiences for movies, games and apps available on day one and beyond worldwide. These include Star Trek Into Darkness, Fast & Furious 6, Dead Rising 3, Just Dance 2014, Battlefield 4, Internet Explorer and Machinima.

The Xbox One SmartGlass app is available for download now on all iOS, Android and Windows 8 smart devices.

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Welcome to the official Train2Game blog, a key source of games industry news and discussion for everyone from developers to Train2Game students and their parents.
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